Welcome to this week’s PUNCHLIST, where we round up the biggest news in nerd culture. It might be from the MCU, board gaming, D&D, and more. But whatever the news is this week, we’ll give it to you in a punchy format.
7. New Standalone Terraforming Mars Card Game Coming From Stronghold Games
Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition was announced by Stronghold Games. It will have its origins on Kickstarter, but a date has yet to be set for the launch of the campaign. Sparse details are available at this time – limited to the fact that its a card game with 200+ cards and with the creative team and box art revealed – but they had me (and probably many, many others) at Terraforming Mars.
+ More here: Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
6. Dragonlance Novel Release Date Leaks on Amazon
Dragonlance was a hugely popular series of novels set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, and fans have been clamoring for more in the series or to see it brought into the 5th edition of the tabletop game for years. According to a leaked Amazon UK product page, we might see the first of a new series of Dragonlance novels debut in July of this year. Could this be the “exciting news” author Margaret Weis teased last month after she and coauthor Tracy Hickman dropped their suit against Wizards of the Coast?
+ More here: Dragonlance Novels
5. Deadpool’s MCU Debut Confirmed to be R-Rated
In an interview with Collider, Kevin Feige confirmed that Deadpool’s first movie set in the MCU will be rated R, that Ryan Reynolds is overseeing the script, and that the movie will not begin filming this year. So while we’ll have to wait (and it’s not like there’s no MCU content to keep us plenty satisfied in the interim) for Deadpool 3, it seems like they’re going to keep it geared towards more adult audiences.
+ More here: Deadpool 3
4. HBO Lost Over 50% of Its Adult Audience After Game of Thrones Ended
A new report from the network showed that 51% of their 18-49 demographic ditched their subscriptions after Game of Thrones wrapped. The departure also factored into a 38% overall loss of viewership for HBO, which is believed to be the reason behind their aggressive marketing of the HBO Max streaming service.
+ More here: HBO Viewership Down 38%
3. Book Sales Up Over 8% in 2020
We’ve reported in past Punchlists that video game sales and YouTube viewerships skyrocketed last year, but not all of the media we consumed more of involved screens. Books were up 8.2% in units (as opposed to dollars in sales) last year, with juvenile non-fiction and juvenile fiction (including graphic novels) contributing to much of the growth.
+ More Here: Book Sales Up in 2020
2. Si Spurrier to Helm New X-Men Series
Spurrier will lead a title called Way of X, which is to debut in April. A new team headed by Nightcrawler will “delve into the mysteries of the X-Men’s new way of life in Krakoa.” Spurrier said:
…Way of X is a story about the creation of a new mutant religion. But it’s not…not really. That’s kinda where it starts for sure. Nightcrawler realizes something’s wrong with the hearts and minds of mutantkind and sets out to fix it. But as he quickly discovers, this isn’t a job for priests and prayers… The question is, what do they have to become in order to fight it?
See Link Below
+ More here: Way of X
1. Indiana Jones Game on the Way from Bethesda and MachineGames
Teased just yesterday with the short video below, not much is known of the title. Disney describes it as “a wholly original, standalone tale set at the height of the career of the famed adventurer.”
Check back next Wednesday for more news for nerds.
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